US urges China, Russia, India to stop Bashar al-Assad

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday urged China, India and Russia to step up pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to curtail his government s brutal crackdown on protests.

In an interview with CBS News, Clinton suggested that China and India impose energy sanctions on Syria while she urged Russia to stop selling arms to Damascus, which has been a customer for decades from Moscow.

“What we really need to do to put the pressure on Assad is to sanction the oil and gas industry. And we want to see Europe take more steps in that direction,” Clinton said.

“And we want to China take steps with us. We want to see India, because India and China have large energy investments inside of Syria. We want to see Russia cease selling arms to the Assad regime,” the chief US diplomat said.

Clinton s spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters earlier that she did not know when Russia last made an arms delivery to Russia.

But when asked if Washington had asked Russia to stop arms sales, Nuland replied: “We have repeatedly, yes, and over many, many years and more than one administration.”

Clinton meanwhile welcomed the fact that China and Russia, after refusing to condemn Syria, backed a UN Security Council statement last week denouncing the Syrian regime.

Clinton to visit Pakistan next month

ISLAMABAD: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Pakistan next month, TrendPK reported on Tuesday.

Clinton will lead the US delegation in next month’s Pak-US strategic dialogue.

Sources told the media that the US intends to send high profile officials to Pakistan for the visit. The dialogue between two countries is expected to strengthen ties and ease tension. TrendPK

World powers raise pressure on Gaddafi to go

LONDON: Britain and the United States stepped up pressure on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to quit on Tuesday, and rebels fighting him promised to build a free, democratic state if they won power in Tripoli.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, opening a conference of 40 governments and international bodies on Libya, accused Gaddafi’s supporters of “murderous attacks” on people in Misrata, Libya’s third largest city.

“As this broad range of countries gathers here today in London, there are people suffering terribly under Gaddafi’s rule. Our message to them is this: there are better days ahead for Libya,” Cameron said.

New Jewish settlement move may undermine peace talks: Clinton

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday Israel’s move to proceed with an East Jerusalem settlement project by razing a derelict hotel undermined the peace effort.

This disturbing development undermines peace efforts to achieve the two-state solution, Clinton said in a statement in Abu Dhabi, where she is on an official visit.

In particular, this move contradicts the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties on the status of Jerusalem.

White House to help Pakistan fight extremism

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday said its commitment to helping Pakistan root out violent extremism would not waver, following the assassination of the governor of Punjab province.

The White House added its voice to condolences offered to the family of Governor Salman Taseer on Tuesday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“This is an individual who had worked hard to promote tolerance and his loss is a great one for Pakistan,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

“We remain committed to the efforts that the Pakistani government is (taking) and must undertake to root out violent extremism and to bring greater peace and stability to that country and to that region of the world.

On Tuesday, Clinton said she had admired Taseer’s work to promote tolerance and education and described his death as a “great loss.”

US Security Threatened by Revelations: Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON: In a disclosure of some of the most sensitive information revealed by WikiLeaks so far, the website has released a secret cable listing sites worldwide that the U.S. considers critical to its national security.

Commenting on the latest revelations made by WikiLeaks, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has termed the disclosure of those most sensitive diplomatic cables as a serious threat to US’s national security and integrity.

The locations cited in the diplomatic cable from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton range from undersea communications lines to suppliers of food, medicine and manufacturing materials.

The Pentagon declined to comment Monday on the details of what it called “stolen” documents containing classified information. But a spokesman, Col. David Lapan, called the disclosure “damaging” and said it gives valuable information to terrorists.

WikiLeaks Release of Classified Information to be Condemned: Clinton

The United States deeply regrets any disclosure of classified information, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday in her first comment on the release of State Department cables by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

I can say that the United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential, including private discussions between counterparts or our diplomats’ personal assessments and observations. I want to make clear that our official foreign policy is not set through these messages but here in Washington, she told reporters at a press conference. I want you to know that we are taking aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information. I have directed that specific actions be taken at the State Department. In addition to new security safe guards at the Department of Defense and elsewhere to protect State Department information so this kind of breech cannot and does not ever happen again, Clinton said.

Clinton said the release of such documents undermines US efforts to work with other countries but she was confident US relations would withstand the challenge posed by the disclosures. The White House, Pentagon and State Department have all said that they are tightening up procedures to ensure that such disclosures do not occur again.

U.S. deeply regrets any disclosure of secrets

WASHINGTON: The United States deeply regrets any disclosure of classified information, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday in her first comment on the release of State Department cables by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks.

While she would not comment directly on the cables, which were described on Sunday by five news organizations who had advance access to some of more than 250,000 cables obtained by WikiLeaks, Clinton said the United States would take aggressive steps to hold responsible those who “stole” them.

“The United States deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential, including private discussions between counterparts or our diplomats’ personal assessments and observations,” she told reporters.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the documents report that Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged

US ‘stands in solidarity’ with India: Clinton

WASHINGTON: Two years after the 2008 Mumbai attacks killed 166 people, the United State stands “in solidarity” with India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

“As the people of the United States gather with family to celebrate Thanksgiving, we pause to remember the horrific attack on innocent men, women and children that occurred in Mumbai two years ago,” Clinton said in a statement late Wednesday.

“Now, as then, the American people stand in solidarity with the people of India and honor those who lost their lives.”

During a visit to India earlier this month, US President Barack Obama shared with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh the results of a probe that found US intelligence did not pass on warnings about David Headley, an American who played a key role in the attacks.

The president stayed in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, which

Pakistan paying a big price in terror war, admits Clinton

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is paying a “big price” for supporting U.S. war against terror groups in their own national interest, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

In an interview with ABC News, Ms. Clinton accepted that the U.S. had created certain radical outfits and supported terrorists like Osama bin Laden to fight against the erstwhile Soviet Union, but that backing has boomeranged.

“Part of what we are fighting against right now, the United States created. We created the Mujahidin force against the Soviet Union (in Afghanistan). We trained them, we equipped them, we funded them, including somebody named Osama bin Laden. And it didn’t work out so well for us,” she said.

The Secretary of the State also said Pakistan is paying a “big price” for supporting U.S. war against terror groups in their own national interest. “But I think it is important

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